why we wrote this book · 2020. 7. 4. · why we wrote this book. summers of 2015 and 2016 •...

Why we wrote this book

Summers of 2015 and 2016• Trayvon Martin• Mike Brown• Philando Castille• Alton Sterling• Freddie Gray

Protests in Ferguson and BaltimoreWe saw race but few people were talking about it….So, we start with a discussion of RACE and its political construction, the foundation on which the United States was built

www.smithandhattery.com

July 4th, 2020

1620-2020• 400 years since the

founding of Jamestown 1776-2020• 244 years since the

founding of the nation


• THOMAS JEFFERSON - Signatory of US Constitution

• THOMAS JEFFERSON--author of the Declaration of Independence

• THOMAS JEFFERSON - 3rd President of the United States


Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

Think of Jefferson as we move to the next set of discussions

• THOMAS JEFFERSON - Slave Master• THOMAS JEFFERSON - Rapist; (e.g., Sally

Hemings)• THOMAS JEFFERSON - reneged on

MANUMITTING his slaves upon his death on July 4, 1826


Chattel and intergenerational

transmission

• Virginia had made its own law in 1662 creating the status of chattel for Africans providing that they were slaves for life and that their condition as slaves was transmitted to their posterity. The slave status passed to descendants through the mother as in the Virginia 1662 statute that read as follows:

• “All children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother” (Hening, 1819, 3:252).

• Hening, William Waller. The Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the Frist Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. 13 volumes. Richmond: W. Gray Printers, 1819. 3:252

The US Constitution

—3/5th

Compromise

• Article I (Article 1 - Legislative)

• Section 2

• 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.2 The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

https://constitutionus.com/#n2

Dr. Gregory Williams

Book: Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He was Black(Dutton, $22.95)


Miss Sallie”My father said … that we were going to be staying with his family, a family I knew absolutely nothing about. Do you remember Miss Sallie?’ I remembered a Miss Sallie, a tall thin black woman who would come into and out of our lives, identified as a maid, a cook. She was around, but we just didn’t know who she was. He said, “Well that’s my mother, and that’s your grandmother. That means you boys are part colored, and I’m colored. And in Indiana, you’re going to be colored boys. In Virginia you were white boys. Now, you’re not any different today than you were yesterday, but in Indiana people are going to treat you differently.’”


Gregory Williams

The “ONE-DROP RULE” is a POLITICAL and LEGAL principle used to define who is Black and who is white.

One drop of Black blood means you are Black

Your racial identity is what the government defines it to be.But it's not just about who is Black it's also, and equally importantly, about who is white....constructing the category "white."Are you free? Can you attend this school or buy a home in this neighborhood? Can you vote?


We use the term “policing” to mean not only the literal use of police force to control the behavior of Black people—by arrest, incarceration, murder, and so forth—but also to mean the control, regulation, and surveilling of Black bodies: how Black people are allowed to “be,” where Black people are allowed to go and when, and what choices Black people are allowed to make. What do we mean by symbolic policing? Black bodies are policed in a variety of ways that do not involve either law enforcement or the criminal justice system. For example, for most of the history of the United States, Blacks have been relegated to living in segregated communities regardless of their social class standing or ability to purchase a home in a more affluent neighborhood. This sort of “policing” restricts the access many Blacks have to the benefits of living in middle-class neighborhoods, including lower crime rates, better public schools, and cleaner, safer housing. Policing Black bodies also means surveilling Black bodies, defining what hairstyles are “acceptable” in various workplaces workplaces or when and how Black people are allowed to express their discontent. Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, found that his Black body was policed when beginning in 2016 he elected to express his concern for the welfare of Black people by refusing to stand during the playing of the National Anthem. By conceptualizing policing more broadly, we are able to identify more clearly the myriad ways in which Black bodies are controlled by a variety of systems that restrict Black people, Black families, and Black communities from equal access to the opportunity structure while allowing white people, white families, and white communities nearly limitless opportunities to get an education, get a good job, buy a house, and live safely.www.smithandhattery.com

Exercise on White Privilege https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

• I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. [racial profiling]

• I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. [protestors = thugs]

• If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race. [I won’t be killed]

• If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have [Protests]

• I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen. [Starbucks/Birdwatching]

• I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race. [School to prison pipeline]

• I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.


https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_Vzl-r8NY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_Vzl-r8NY

What is white structurally?

It is a product of the racial hierarchy status established through the constitution that allowed advantages to accrue to white people and white communities and disadvantages to accrue to Black people and Black communitiesIt is unearnedIt is extracted from a finite pot of resourcesIt is the foundation of the myth of meritocracyIt's individual, yet...but more importantly its structuralIt's not about being born white or Black it about laws and policies that determine what white people can do and what Black people can't do or where they aren't allowed to be. Its about buying a home in a safe neighborhood and getting a degree from a top-notch college.


The million-dollar question: Do poor white people have white privilege?

YES...and no.They are not stopped and friskedThey can buy a home in any neighborhood they can affordThey are more likely to get rehab than jailThey have significantly more wealthThey are not shot by the police


Median wealth of poor whites = $11,700Median wealth of poor Blacks = $1,000

Median wealth of all whites = $170,000Median wealth of all Blacks = $17,000 Whites have on average 10 times more wealth than Blacks


The costs of being Black

Health costs: high blood pressure

James Baldwin: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”

Ibram X. Kendi:“To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction.”

To be Black is to be an “Invisible Man”


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why we wrote this book · 2020. 7. 4. · why we wrote this book. summers of 2015 and 2016 •...

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